exercises for toning inner thighs? - 3 Fat Chicks on a Diet Weight Loss Community

Nienna · 09-19-2010, 07:36 AM

I know that you can't spot reduce during weight loss, but I was hoping that someone might have suggestions for exercises to help tone the muscles in the inner thighs. I've been walking a ton and jogging nightly, and my legs are starting to really firm up. My inner thighs seem to be just as flabby as ever, though! I'd like to do something to tone them a bit so that when I start to lose more weight there they look as nice as the rest of my legs. Does anyone know of any exercises I could do that don't require equipment?

nelie · 09-19-2010, 09:09 AM

Well running, walking, etc work your leg muscles in general. Women tend to store fat on their inner thighs and there is no real way to 'tone' an area if it is skin/fat. You could do some plie squats and just overall squats, lunges, etc to work your legs.

StephanieM · 09-19-2010, 09:19 AM

I have a similar issue, my legs have lost a lot of fat but I have these pockets of fat on my inner thighs! I'm hoping that with the more fat I lose it will eventually hit that area sometime, I'd like to have legs that don't rub together when I walk.

One thing I was doing to help, was doing weighted leg lifts. It's like a regular leg lift in a side plank position, but your free hand holds a dumbell onto your leg for extra resistance.

bronzeager · 09-19-2010, 11:33 AM

Jillian's 30 day shred has a sort of one knee at a time squat while doing bicep curls with hand weights. I did the video yesterday after a break and noticed it in my inner thighs this morning (first time around I guess I was more distracted by a sore butt from the regular squats). Don't know if it has a proper name. Basically you have your feet about 3-4 feet apart and squat with one knee, keeping the other leg straight and to the side. Be sure to keep your weight back and not lean forward over the knee.

And of course no such thing as spot reducing yada yada.

ETA: finally found it, it's a "side lunge".

saef · 09-19-2010, 12:02 PM

I was just studying mine the other day & was appalled at the way the skin looks there, kind of toward the back. I am really wrinkly & loose there in a way that I'm not anywhere else on my body. (I thought of an elephant, frankly. That baggy crinkled look.) That view was not good for my self-esteem & I'm trying to obliterate it from my memory. I figure on keeping doing what I'm doing. It will either get better-looking in time or it won't. I'm a pear so I probably used that area for storage overflow.

Ilene · 09-20-2010, 08:53 AM

Lunges, squats any and all variations help to firm up leg muscles all around... Keep running and doing lost of cardio too...

Nienna · 09-20-2010, 03:47 PM

Thanks for the advice and support!

Stephanie, thanks for the tip about weighted leg lifts. I didn't feel it at the time, but now my inner thighs are a bit sore, which I take to be a good sign. I love dumbbells, though I'm beginning to think I should have invested in adjustable ones, as I'm quickly outgrowing the weights I have! I definitely hear you on the thigh-rubbing issue. I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I didn't realize that my fat legs were responsible for the untimely deaths of my pants until two weeks ago!

Nelie, Bronzeager, and Ilene, thanks for suggesting lunges and squats. I had been ignoring them, imagining that my walking and jogging made them unnecessary. I did some earlier today, though, and I can definitely feel it! I wonder where I got the silly idea that walking a lot made squats and lunges redundant.

Saef, maybe we just shouldn't torture ourselves with full-body examinations while we know we're still progressing! I think the thighs are a problem area for everyone, no matter body type; I'm a pronounced apple, but my inner thighs are still soft and flabby. I'm probably just being impatient, though! I'll try to take your long view of it, and just wait. You're absolutely right; it'll either get better or it won't, and I'm already doing a lot for my weight loss and my health.

Thanks again, all! I really appreciate the feedback and the help. I hope that you are doing well with all your fitness goals!

shcirerf · 09-20-2010, 11:36 PM

My orthopedic surgeon told me to get a good old "Suzzane Summers" (sp?) Thigh Master to strengthen the inner thighs to help provide good stability for the knees.

I don't know if you can buy them new anymore, but they are all over the place at garage sales and thrift stores.

Mirtika · 09-21-2010, 01:43 AM

Any exercise that uses that particular muscle will help to build firmness there if you do it enough to exhaust the muscles of the inner thighs.

In Pilates, which I do, there are exercises where a medium to large size fitness ball is placed between knees or ankles or feet, and you have to SQUEEZE the ball while the legs move (up and down, etc). Squeezing to keep the ball from falling uses those inner thigh muscles.

If you lie on your side to do leg lifts, but you lift the bottom leg UP whether the other leg is down or the other leg is elevated....you LIFT the bottom leg up and use that inner thigh muscle.

If you do ballet barre exercises and have to move the leg INWARD (saw, you're sweeping it in semicircles or across the front or back of body), you're using the inner thigh muscles.

If you just SIT i a chair watching tv and put a smaller size ball (one that has give and you can sqeeze), and just squeeze/release, squeeze/release, etc, you use inner thigh muscles. So, forget thighmaster (awkward to use, I know, cause I had one). Just get a medium size fitness ball and you can use it for all sorts of other exercises, not just inner thigh. By medium size, I mean not the huge ones you sit on or the tiny ones you do arm exercises with. One that you can hold comfortably between your knees and have enough spacing that you are at ease and can squeeze away. If you want to start doing it right away and don't have any balls, etc: Just use your hands and arm strength to work again. Put your hands flat against your inside lower thighs/knees, and as you push in with thighs, RESIST with your hands/arm strength. The point is to activate the desired muscles and work the to exhaustion/burn.

If you just sit and use them minimally, you will get negligible firming. If you aren't sore the next day in the region worked, you just didn't work hard enough to get the results you want

Make sure you always engage your core muscles to stabilize so you don't arch/strain your back.

And Google is your best info friend:

http://www.google.com/search?client=...=Google+Search

StephanieM · 09-21-2010, 07:45 PM

Nienna, I got adjustable dumbells and I love them! I can either have two 20 lb dumbells or transfer the weights to one and make one that goes up to 40 lbs. I like the set cus it comes with 4 7.5 lb weights and 4 2.5 lb weights.

bronzeager · 09-23-2010, 05:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by saef

I was just studying mine the other day & was appalled at the way the skin looks there, kind of toward the back. I am really wrinkly & loose there in a way that I'm not anywhere else on my body. (I thought of an elephant, frankly. That baggy crinkled look.) That view was not good for my self-esteem & I'm trying to obliterate it from my memory.

Oh Saef, you made me look there! I am so not looking there again, otherwise I am not going to be able to wear my new bathing suit. I'm just going to pretend it's not there.